The "What airlines don't want you to know" tone of this post is misplaced and misguided. I also question the suggestions that longer published flight times mean more CO2 and there's no incentive for airlines to become more efficient.
Here the airlines are doing pretty much exactly what I, as a passenger, want, which is to predictably arrive at an airport by a certain time more often. If a plane takes less time to fly somewhere some of the time because of weather, timely takeoff from departure airport, landing slot availability at the arrival airport or whatever, I don't really care. If they arrive late however, that can be a huge problem, particularly for making connections.
As for CO2, the plane flying slower is more fuel-efficient. Isn't this lower CO2 emissions?
40 years ago there were so many fewer planes in the skies. You could fly as fast as you want, take off when you want (pretty much) and land when you want. Well, lack of satellite navigation and tracking mattered but basically the skies were less crowded. Just the other day I flew out of NYC and it took us 40+ minutes of being in a queue to take off behind 15-20 other planes because reasons. You have to have that padding in your schedule.
Here the airlines are doing pretty much exactly what I, as a passenger, want, which is to predictably arrive at an airport by a certain time more often. If a plane takes less time to fly somewhere some of the time because of weather, timely takeoff from departure airport, landing slot availability at the arrival airport or whatever, I don't really care. If they arrive late however, that can be a huge problem, particularly for making connections.
As for CO2, the plane flying slower is more fuel-efficient. Isn't this lower CO2 emissions?
40 years ago there were so many fewer planes in the skies. You could fly as fast as you want, take off when you want (pretty much) and land when you want. Well, lack of satellite navigation and tracking mattered but basically the skies were less crowded. Just the other day I flew out of NYC and it took us 40+ minutes of being in a queue to take off behind 15-20 other planes because reasons. You have to have that padding in your schedule.